West won this League Cup tie at home to Harpenden Hawks, but they made hard work of a victory which was easier than the scoreline suggests.

 

The first quarter of an hour was fairly even with half chances at either end, the best of which followed a great Ryan Rickard though ball for Scott Howlett, whose shot was only just tipped wide for a corner by the Hawks keeper. Soon after Hawks opened the scoring as their striker beat the West defence to score from ten yards.

 

West gradually took control of the game and equalized after half an hour as an excellent cross from Ryan R was met by Greg Springall, who skillful header into the bottom corner gave the Hawks keeper no chance. A good move from Carl Biggs and Scott almost gave Greg his second soon after but his shot went just wide.

In the second half, West had the territorial advantage early on, but struggled to create many good scoring chances. Fifteen minutes in however, a cross from Carl was again superbly headed into the back of the net by Greg, however a dubious offside flag was raised to deny him a second goal. At the back, good performances from Jamie Heaffey, Ryan Maher, Adam Thornhill, Joe Murtagh and Myles Smith meant Alex Cobb in goal had little to do.

Five minutes from time, West missed a penalty awarded for hand ball, but in the last minute of the game the winner was scored by Carl, whose lobbed shot from the right wing beat the outstretched hands of the keeper.

West deserved this win, which wasn’t easy in the warm weather and on a large pitch, but they passed the ball well, especially down the wing, and hopefully they can now look forward to a good run in the League Cup.